SnakesinAlaska
Along with FFVII Remake, this was the ex-PlayStation exclusive game I was looking forward to playing the most. I remember, back when it was initially released in 2020, just...how awesome it looked it looked. From top to bottom. The graphics were stellar, the combat looked fun & the whole game had this general "possible GOAT" vibe to it that I had eagerly waited to test out for myself. Fast forward to two weeks ago when this title finally made its way onto PC, where I could experience it for myself & see what the hype was all about. Fast forward to about...two hours ago when I completed the main storyline, where I can safely say that this game met my expectations. While I don't quite think it's a masterpiece, I still firmly believe that this game was pretty damn solid all around.
The graphics, for instance, are ridiculously good. The environments are lush, with a bright array of colours & auras that instantly grab the players attention. Assets will also interact with the environment in a manner that further excels this sense of beauty & awe. The wind caressing a field of flowers, the petals fluttering about, the physics of the grass, it's all so impressive. It's realistic but with enough in the way of artistry to give the game its own distinct look. Sadly, the world itself is pretty lackluster in terms of game design & the result is a ton of repetition with the side content & even the mainline events as well. The world is undeniably enthralling in a visual sense, but in terms of gameplay, it feels like it could have used some fleshing out. The general structure of the missions began to stretch themselves pretty thin after a short while. Like, I can't even count how many times I had to follow tracks to find something whose location was already dead obvious to begin with. Luckily, the combat system was good enough to circumvent any serious fatigue I otherwise would have endured through these dull & repetitive missions. Ghost of Tsushima's combat loop is one of simplicity but I feel this is one of those examples of a game that excels in said simplicity. Ghost of Tsushima is no Devil May Cry or Kingdom Hearts. There's no stupid, near infinite amount of combos or mechanical depth to warrant an entire essay.
Ghost of Tsushima's combat system is just, to put it as simply as possibly, so fucking fun. It's approach to combat is simple; you have four different stances, each of which lends itself to fighting a particular type of foe & will allow you to do things like stagger them more easily & break their defenses. They each possess attacks that subtly differ in categories such as attack speed, power & reach, meaning you have the option to use any stance as a sort of default option but you always have those other stances in your back pocket in case things go south & you'll need to make things a little easier for yourself. Most action games have a ton of weapon variety, which this one lacks as you only carry the same katana throughout, but I believe these four stances made for a decent compromise. This brings me to the games health system. A system where healing options aren't itemized, rather, something you'll need to earn & ultimately manage. Killing enemies will fill what's called a "resolve gauge" & how much the gauge fills depends on the manner in which you kill them. Killing more skillfully = more resolve gauge. What I found fun about this combat loop was figuring out how to manage the swarm of Mongols in front of me while also managing the aforementioned resolve gauge. The means in which you engage battles will almost always depend on how much of the gauge is filled & it lead to a variety of just fun & satisfying encounters. Low resolve gauge kept me on the defensive where I would try & weed out some of the weaker enemies to try & build that gauge back up. Meanwhile, a higher resolve gauge means I can focus purely on carnage & how I can dismember my foes as stylishly as possible. These are some pretty rudimentary fundamentals of a combat system, yes, but what makes Ghost of Tsushima's combat work in spite of its simplicity is how it all feels.
No other game makes you feel more like a badass samurai than this one & it's all thanks to how fluid the attacks are, how much impact the attacks have, just the sheer scope of it all is just so damn cool. And this is all felt much more strongly with the duels. Much of the games bosses are duels, a particular type of battle that are more restrictive in terms of options & general movement but were still the best moments in the game regardless. The way Sucker Punch was able to emulate old school samurai duels through its mechanics & movement was just remarkable. Meaning there's a greater emphasis on dodging & parrying than with the typical encounters. Due to the restricted movement, there's more pressure on knowing when to dodge an attack, when to parry, when to take the offensive, etc. And there's always a clear indicator to how you'll need to react to the enemy's attack. Red indicator means you must dodge no matter what, blue indicator means they can be parried but not blocked, while no indicator means you can avoid the attack in any way you wish. I think said indicators were a bit too obvious & there's always a generous amount of time given for the player to react but regardless, using these indicators to memorize attack patterns & ultimately counter them was nothing short of satisfying. Overall, Ghost of Tsushima just has a rock solid combat loop that's smooth, satisfying & ripe with fun encounters throughout. There's a good amount of surface level fun to be had but just enough in terms of strategy & focus. A common complaint I saw regarding combat was the lack of enemy variety. Which, in all fairness, is mostly true. Down the road, enemies will begin to light their swords on fire & carry more durable shields but that's about the full extent of beefing the enemies up as the game progresses. It's an issue, no doubt, but a mostly harmless one. And I think the problems with late game combat lie less within minimal enemy variety & moreso within the insane variety of options the player will end up having. Giving the player a ton of options is good, absolutely, I'm not trying to deny that. However, Ghost of Tsushima gives the player a ludicrous amount of mechanics that wind up trivializing encounters. Like, did we seriously need this many projectiles? Bow & arrows, blow darts, smoke bombs, kunais, sticky bombs, chimes, it's kinda just overkill in my eyes. I know there's an entirely new island in the post game that's supposedly much more difficult than the base game, so perhaps all these options would actually serve a better strategic purpose there but...I digress.
Anywho, the worst thing about Ghost's gameplay is the stealth. I like what it does thematically, but mechanically, the stealth just sucks. The enemy AI isn't anywhere near as responsive or adaptive enough to complement a stealth system & besides, you hardly have to put in any effort to get past them or assassinate them. They have an awareness gauge that's way too generous & will deplete immediately if you crouch behind a nearby box, not to mention the painfully small amount of reactions they have. But what really gets me are the moments where the stealth gameplay is forced. They're just so...baby's first stealth game in how they are designed. The pathways are always egregiously obvious & are laid in a way that feels super generous which kills that sense of open ended gameplay that makes most stealth games work. The only thing that would have made this worse is if the devs put a huge yellow line on the screen indicating where you're supposed to go. But honestly...it wouldn't have made much a difference if they HAD ended up doing that. I know I've got hundreds of hours of Metal Gear Solid & Splinter Cell under my belt, so maybe I'm just being too harsh on something that's not even the main bulk of the gameplay but...whatever lmao. Ghost of Tsushima still plays fantastically well & has given me plenty of enjoyment with its combat.
I guess all that's left to cover now is the story, which...in all honesty...there's not really much to cover here. Now, that's not me saying this story is bad or anything, but rather me saying that the story is pretty simplistic. Much simpler than the gameplay even. There's only so much you can do with the "big man takes over island & you gotta liberate it" schtick but I think Ghost of Tsushima was able to inject some strong themes & characterization here & there. If you've seen anything samurai related, then you know the drill here; lots of jargon over honour, family, sacrifice &shit like that. But the writing & acting performances were good enough to elevate rather cliche premises into something much more poignant & memorable. You'll probably see a lot of story beats & plot twists coming from a mile away but, again, the sheer strength of the writing made it to where I was always locked into the narrative despite its predictability. And the characters were all-round great as well. Not a single one of them I felt was poorly written or even mediocre. And the Ghost man himself was a rock solid protagonist. Whose themes of abandoning archaic traditions to find your own identity resonated wonderfully. Just a damn fine game overall, I suppose. Yeah, it's got some problems & I'd love to see a sequel that fleshes out some of its design ideas but in spite of that, Ghost of Tsushima was nothing short of a memorable experience. A good title that was well worth the four years it took to find itself on another platform. Just wish our friends over at Square Enix could hurry up & update us on when their little project is make its way onto PC too.
The graphics, for instance, are ridiculously good. The environments are lush, with a bright array of colours & auras that instantly grab the players attention. Assets will also interact with the environment in a manner that further excels this sense of beauty & awe. The wind caressing a field of flowers, the petals fluttering about, the physics of the grass, it's all so impressive. It's realistic but with enough in the way of artistry to give the game its own distinct look. Sadly, the world itself is pretty lackluster in terms of game design & the result is a ton of repetition with the side content & even the mainline events as well. The world is undeniably enthralling in a visual sense, but in terms of gameplay, it feels like it could have used some fleshing out. The general structure of the missions began to stretch themselves pretty thin after a short while. Like, I can't even count how many times I had to follow tracks to find something whose location was already dead obvious to begin with. Luckily, the combat system was good enough to circumvent any serious fatigue I otherwise would have endured through these dull & repetitive missions. Ghost of Tsushima's combat loop is one of simplicity but I feel this is one of those examples of a game that excels in said simplicity. Ghost of Tsushima is no Devil May Cry or Kingdom Hearts. There's no stupid, near infinite amount of combos or mechanical depth to warrant an entire essay.
Ghost of Tsushima's combat system is just, to put it as simply as possibly, so fucking fun. It's approach to combat is simple; you have four different stances, each of which lends itself to fighting a particular type of foe & will allow you to do things like stagger them more easily & break their defenses. They each possess attacks that subtly differ in categories such as attack speed, power & reach, meaning you have the option to use any stance as a sort of default option but you always have those other stances in your back pocket in case things go south & you'll need to make things a little easier for yourself. Most action games have a ton of weapon variety, which this one lacks as you only carry the same katana throughout, but I believe these four stances made for a decent compromise. This brings me to the games health system. A system where healing options aren't itemized, rather, something you'll need to earn & ultimately manage. Killing enemies will fill what's called a "resolve gauge" & how much the gauge fills depends on the manner in which you kill them. Killing more skillfully = more resolve gauge. What I found fun about this combat loop was figuring out how to manage the swarm of Mongols in front of me while also managing the aforementioned resolve gauge. The means in which you engage battles will almost always depend on how much of the gauge is filled & it lead to a variety of just fun & satisfying encounters. Low resolve gauge kept me on the defensive where I would try & weed out some of the weaker enemies to try & build that gauge back up. Meanwhile, a higher resolve gauge means I can focus purely on carnage & how I can dismember my foes as stylishly as possible. These are some pretty rudimentary fundamentals of a combat system, yes, but what makes Ghost of Tsushima's combat work in spite of its simplicity is how it all feels.
No other game makes you feel more like a badass samurai than this one & it's all thanks to how fluid the attacks are, how much impact the attacks have, just the sheer scope of it all is just so damn cool. And this is all felt much more strongly with the duels. Much of the games bosses are duels, a particular type of battle that are more restrictive in terms of options & general movement but were still the best moments in the game regardless. The way Sucker Punch was able to emulate old school samurai duels through its mechanics & movement was just remarkable. Meaning there's a greater emphasis on dodging & parrying than with the typical encounters. Due to the restricted movement, there's more pressure on knowing when to dodge an attack, when to parry, when to take the offensive, etc. And there's always a clear indicator to how you'll need to react to the enemy's attack. Red indicator means you must dodge no matter what, blue indicator means they can be parried but not blocked, while no indicator means you can avoid the attack in any way you wish. I think said indicators were a bit too obvious & there's always a generous amount of time given for the player to react but regardless, using these indicators to memorize attack patterns & ultimately counter them was nothing short of satisfying. Overall, Ghost of Tsushima just has a rock solid combat loop that's smooth, satisfying & ripe with fun encounters throughout. There's a good amount of surface level fun to be had but just enough in terms of strategy & focus. A common complaint I saw regarding combat was the lack of enemy variety. Which, in all fairness, is mostly true. Down the road, enemies will begin to light their swords on fire & carry more durable shields but that's about the full extent of beefing the enemies up as the game progresses. It's an issue, no doubt, but a mostly harmless one. And I think the problems with late game combat lie less within minimal enemy variety & moreso within the insane variety of options the player will end up having. Giving the player a ton of options is good, absolutely, I'm not trying to deny that. However, Ghost of Tsushima gives the player a ludicrous amount of mechanics that wind up trivializing encounters. Like, did we seriously need this many projectiles? Bow & arrows, blow darts, smoke bombs, kunais, sticky bombs, chimes, it's kinda just overkill in my eyes. I know there's an entirely new island in the post game that's supposedly much more difficult than the base game, so perhaps all these options would actually serve a better strategic purpose there but...I digress.
Anywho, the worst thing about Ghost's gameplay is the stealth. I like what it does thematically, but mechanically, the stealth just sucks. The enemy AI isn't anywhere near as responsive or adaptive enough to complement a stealth system & besides, you hardly have to put in any effort to get past them or assassinate them. They have an awareness gauge that's way too generous & will deplete immediately if you crouch behind a nearby box, not to mention the painfully small amount of reactions they have. But what really gets me are the moments where the stealth gameplay is forced. They're just so...baby's first stealth game in how they are designed. The pathways are always egregiously obvious & are laid in a way that feels super generous which kills that sense of open ended gameplay that makes most stealth games work. The only thing that would have made this worse is if the devs put a huge yellow line on the screen indicating where you're supposed to go. But honestly...it wouldn't have made much a difference if they HAD ended up doing that. I know I've got hundreds of hours of Metal Gear Solid & Splinter Cell under my belt, so maybe I'm just being too harsh on something that's not even the main bulk of the gameplay but...whatever lmao. Ghost of Tsushima still plays fantastically well & has given me plenty of enjoyment with its combat.
I guess all that's left to cover now is the story, which...in all honesty...there's not really much to cover here. Now, that's not me saying this story is bad or anything, but rather me saying that the story is pretty simplistic. Much simpler than the gameplay even. There's only so much you can do with the "big man takes over island & you gotta liberate it" schtick but I think Ghost of Tsushima was able to inject some strong themes & characterization here & there. If you've seen anything samurai related, then you know the drill here; lots of jargon over honour, family, sacrifice &shit like that. But the writing & acting performances were good enough to elevate rather cliche premises into something much more poignant & memorable. You'll probably see a lot of story beats & plot twists coming from a mile away but, again, the sheer strength of the writing made it to where I was always locked into the narrative despite its predictability. And the characters were all-round great as well. Not a single one of them I felt was poorly written or even mediocre. And the Ghost man himself was a rock solid protagonist. Whose themes of abandoning archaic traditions to find your own identity resonated wonderfully. Just a damn fine game overall, I suppose. Yeah, it's got some problems & I'd love to see a sequel that fleshes out some of its design ideas but in spite of that, Ghost of Tsushima was nothing short of a memorable experience. A good title that was well worth the four years it took to find itself on another platform. Just wish our friends over at Square Enix could hurry up & update us on when their little project is make its way onto PC too.
VIA the Xbox 360 Arcade version, which isn't an available option
I'm only reviewing the DX version simply because it's the only way I can experience the game at this moment. If I somehow manage to get my little paws on a copy of the original, perhaps I'll write a separate review for that one. But for now, I have to stick with the inferior remaster. And I say inferior despite having never played the original because there are plenty of downgrades that are just surface level. Like, you don't even have to take a deep dive into both versions to see what went wrong with the remaster, for most of its issues can be noticed just by watching gameplay of the two.
We can talk about the newly added technical issues all day but what gets me about the DX version is the graphics. The original Sonic Adventure had a unique, dare I say beautiful art style that had a remarkable colour palette which gave every setting its own unique look. The colours really popped and it gave the environments a pleasant aura. DX, however, completely ruins everything by sucking away all of the colours for the sake of higher resolution textures, resulting in a very bare-bones, muddled looking mess. Subtle little details in the environments were removed as well, giving everything that "plastic-y" look that I absolutely cannot stand to look at. Not even the character models were spared. Every character was remodeled akin to their SA2 counterparts so the characters don't really blend into the world around them. Oh, and I can't possibly forget about the near non-existent lighting.
Along with shittier graphics came an abundance of glitches that to my knowledge, weren't present in the original game. For instance, the collision system is abhorrent and there are plenty of invisible walls where even brushing up against them in the slightest completely resets your speed. There are also a number of infamous clipping related glitches such as the one prior to the loop in Emerald Coast or another loop in Icecap. And then there's the camera that will often struggle to keep up with the player and at times, can even get stuck on one angle because you just so happened to go a bit too fast for the game to keep up.
While Adventure DX DID introduce some extra issues, there are still plenty of flaws that are just native to the game as a whole, regardless of what version you're playing. I've discussed the other play styles time and time again (which I will do later on in the review) but honestly, Sonic himself isn't exactly perfect either. Even if some of his stages (Speed Highway, Red Mountain first come to mind) are some of the best in the series, there are a few other stages in his campaign that aren't even close to the same level of quality.
Perhaps my least favorite example is Casinopolis where, for whatever goddamn reason, the devs decided to give Sonic one of the slowest stages in the game. I just wanna go fast, dammit, I don't care about this tedious pinball crap. And then there's Lost World which is about as linear as it gets, not to mention that snake segment which is basically a waiting simulator dressed in the idea of a puzzle. And how could I possibly forget about the button-mashy Sky Chase acts?
And speaking of which, the Sky Chase acts get repeated four times throughout both Sonic and Tails' camoaigns. I don't know what made them think that the Sky Chase was something worth repeating four whole times but I digress. Yeah, things tend to get repeated in Sonic Adventure quite a bit. Boss fights, stage elements, entire stages themselves, yeah, play this game for long enough and you'll run into recycled assets quite often. And that brings me to a major problem with how the extra playstyles were handled.
Much of the stages during the other five campaigns are just...stages you've already played using Sonic albeit with a few slight tweaks so they can actually be playable with the other characters. The other five campaigns suffer from this quite a bit but Tails is definitely the worst offender in this regard. Aside from Speed Highway, Tails' stages are a carbon copy of Sonics. They did add some little speed boosters in the air but that's about as significant as the changes got. So aside from some little additions here and there, you'll spend much of your Sonic Adventure playthroughs doing the same thing multiple times just with different characters. But of course, this wouldn't be such a big problem if the other characters were actually fun to use.
Playing as Sonic is an absolute blast, no doubt about that. His controls feel fluid and satisfying (one thing that DX thankfully didn't fuck up) and breaking his physics provides the campaign with an extra layer of purely insane fun. Just mashing the spindash to gain absurd amounts of speed is never not fun as hell. And the level design only makes things better with how well it accomodates the games core fundamentals, while also being nuanced enough to where brand new paths can be discovered across several different playthroughs. It's no surprise that some of these stages have gone on to become such beloved classics due to how they possess all of the qualities I mentioned above and then some.
But again, once Sonics campaign is finished, you might as well just shut the game off and spare yourself from the boredom of the other campaigns. Okay, in all fairness, Knuckles is pretty fun despite its lackluster mechanics but Tails, Gamma and especially Amy and Big are all painfully mediocre. I already brought up everything worth mentioning about Tails' campaign but now I'll analyze the other three.
Gamma's campaign is boring but passable enough. Most of it is just a typical run 'n gun type of deal where the player isn't really required to do anything else. They DID implement a timer to try and incentivize precise aiming and kill combos but it was poorly utilized. Three minutes for a stage that should take no more than one? Combine that with laughably linear level structure and an absence of platforming (or anything else for that matter) and you got yourself a pretty lackluster campaign.
Amy is boring and obnoxiously slow but there isn't much to say outside if that. However, for Bigs case, it's the exact opposite as there is plenty of stuff that makes his campaign as poor as it is. Many have complained that fishing shouldn't be part of a Sonic game and while I do disagree with that statement, the thing that makes Bigs campaign so bad is that it's way too similar to real life fishing. It's simple, you cast your lure, sit around and wait for Froggy to take the bait, then you reel him in. If you had to play some sort of timing based minigame in order to catch a fish, I'd give this gameplay a little more leeway but since all you're doing is just holding down a button until you catch a fish, I just simply can't see how anyone could think this is fun. No offense.
Also, sometimes, a fish will break free from your hook and it results in the loss of a life. Not a bad design choice at all, however, when and how a fish escapes is entirely inconsistent, dare I say random. I shit you not, I could have a completey straight shot from six feet away and yet, somehow, someway, the fish will slip from my grasp. It's not like I'm letting go of the A button or having something get caught in the way, no, at times, my catch will inexplicably just slip away.
But while the other stories are pretty mid from a gameplay standpoint, they are pretty good in terms of narrative. It was pretty ambitious to tell the same story from six different points of view and even more ambitious to somehow pull it off pretty well despite the limited technology at the time. One thing I loved about the games narrative are how the vibe feels slightly different in each campaign. The writers really went all out in trying to articulate the many different perspectives of the story. For instance, notice how Eggman sounds much more menacing during Tails' campaign and how Sonic sounds "cooler" during Amy's? Subtle details like that really go a long way in telling a good story.
And of course, Tikal and Chaos's backstory is weirdly endearing and the whole premise of friendship is (for once) presented with sincerity instead of it feeling contrived and overly sappy. Combine that with this grand sense of adventure and an amazing soundtrack to boot, and you've got the makings for a fantastic product. It's just too bad that three quarters of the gameplay is insanely mediocre. Along the glitches and overall ugly aesthetic that DX brought to the table which makes for an all-round average video game.
~ 5.5/10
I'm only reviewing the DX version simply because it's the only way I can experience the game at this moment. If I somehow manage to get my little paws on a copy of the original, perhaps I'll write a separate review for that one. But for now, I have to stick with the inferior remaster. And I say inferior despite having never played the original because there are plenty of downgrades that are just surface level. Like, you don't even have to take a deep dive into both versions to see what went wrong with the remaster, for most of its issues can be noticed just by watching gameplay of the two.
We can talk about the newly added technical issues all day but what gets me about the DX version is the graphics. The original Sonic Adventure had a unique, dare I say beautiful art style that had a remarkable colour palette which gave every setting its own unique look. The colours really popped and it gave the environments a pleasant aura. DX, however, completely ruins everything by sucking away all of the colours for the sake of higher resolution textures, resulting in a very bare-bones, muddled looking mess. Subtle little details in the environments were removed as well, giving everything that "plastic-y" look that I absolutely cannot stand to look at. Not even the character models were spared. Every character was remodeled akin to their SA2 counterparts so the characters don't really blend into the world around them. Oh, and I can't possibly forget about the near non-existent lighting.
Along with shittier graphics came an abundance of glitches that to my knowledge, weren't present in the original game. For instance, the collision system is abhorrent and there are plenty of invisible walls where even brushing up against them in the slightest completely resets your speed. There are also a number of infamous clipping related glitches such as the one prior to the loop in Emerald Coast or another loop in Icecap. And then there's the camera that will often struggle to keep up with the player and at times, can even get stuck on one angle because you just so happened to go a bit too fast for the game to keep up.
While Adventure DX DID introduce some extra issues, there are still plenty of flaws that are just native to the game as a whole, regardless of what version you're playing. I've discussed the other play styles time and time again (which I will do later on in the review) but honestly, Sonic himself isn't exactly perfect either. Even if some of his stages (Speed Highway, Red Mountain first come to mind) are some of the best in the series, there are a few other stages in his campaign that aren't even close to the same level of quality.
Perhaps my least favorite example is Casinopolis where, for whatever goddamn reason, the devs decided to give Sonic one of the slowest stages in the game. I just wanna go fast, dammit, I don't care about this tedious pinball crap. And then there's Lost World which is about as linear as it gets, not to mention that snake segment which is basically a waiting simulator dressed in the idea of a puzzle. And how could I possibly forget about the button-mashy Sky Chase acts?
And speaking of which, the Sky Chase acts get repeated four times throughout both Sonic and Tails' camoaigns. I don't know what made them think that the Sky Chase was something worth repeating four whole times but I digress. Yeah, things tend to get repeated in Sonic Adventure quite a bit. Boss fights, stage elements, entire stages themselves, yeah, play this game for long enough and you'll run into recycled assets quite often. And that brings me to a major problem with how the extra playstyles were handled.
Much of the stages during the other five campaigns are just...stages you've already played using Sonic albeit with a few slight tweaks so they can actually be playable with the other characters. The other five campaigns suffer from this quite a bit but Tails is definitely the worst offender in this regard. Aside from Speed Highway, Tails' stages are a carbon copy of Sonics. They did add some little speed boosters in the air but that's about as significant as the changes got. So aside from some little additions here and there, you'll spend much of your Sonic Adventure playthroughs doing the same thing multiple times just with different characters. But of course, this wouldn't be such a big problem if the other characters were actually fun to use.
Playing as Sonic is an absolute blast, no doubt about that. His controls feel fluid and satisfying (one thing that DX thankfully didn't fuck up) and breaking his physics provides the campaign with an extra layer of purely insane fun. Just mashing the spindash to gain absurd amounts of speed is never not fun as hell. And the level design only makes things better with how well it accomodates the games core fundamentals, while also being nuanced enough to where brand new paths can be discovered across several different playthroughs. It's no surprise that some of these stages have gone on to become such beloved classics due to how they possess all of the qualities I mentioned above and then some.
But again, once Sonics campaign is finished, you might as well just shut the game off and spare yourself from the boredom of the other campaigns. Okay, in all fairness, Knuckles is pretty fun despite its lackluster mechanics but Tails, Gamma and especially Amy and Big are all painfully mediocre. I already brought up everything worth mentioning about Tails' campaign but now I'll analyze the other three.
Gamma's campaign is boring but passable enough. Most of it is just a typical run 'n gun type of deal where the player isn't really required to do anything else. They DID implement a timer to try and incentivize precise aiming and kill combos but it was poorly utilized. Three minutes for a stage that should take no more than one? Combine that with laughably linear level structure and an absence of platforming (or anything else for that matter) and you got yourself a pretty lackluster campaign.
Amy is boring and obnoxiously slow but there isn't much to say outside if that. However, for Bigs case, it's the exact opposite as there is plenty of stuff that makes his campaign as poor as it is. Many have complained that fishing shouldn't be part of a Sonic game and while I do disagree with that statement, the thing that makes Bigs campaign so bad is that it's way too similar to real life fishing. It's simple, you cast your lure, sit around and wait for Froggy to take the bait, then you reel him in. If you had to play some sort of timing based minigame in order to catch a fish, I'd give this gameplay a little more leeway but since all you're doing is just holding down a button until you catch a fish, I just simply can't see how anyone could think this is fun. No offense.
Also, sometimes, a fish will break free from your hook and it results in the loss of a life. Not a bad design choice at all, however, when and how a fish escapes is entirely inconsistent, dare I say random. I shit you not, I could have a completey straight shot from six feet away and yet, somehow, someway, the fish will slip from my grasp. It's not like I'm letting go of the A button or having something get caught in the way, no, at times, my catch will inexplicably just slip away.
But while the other stories are pretty mid from a gameplay standpoint, they are pretty good in terms of narrative. It was pretty ambitious to tell the same story from six different points of view and even more ambitious to somehow pull it off pretty well despite the limited technology at the time. One thing I loved about the games narrative are how the vibe feels slightly different in each campaign. The writers really went all out in trying to articulate the many different perspectives of the story. For instance, notice how Eggman sounds much more menacing during Tails' campaign and how Sonic sounds "cooler" during Amy's? Subtle details like that really go a long way in telling a good story.
And of course, Tikal and Chaos's backstory is weirdly endearing and the whole premise of friendship is (for once) presented with sincerity instead of it feeling contrived and overly sappy. Combine that with this grand sense of adventure and an amazing soundtrack to boot, and you've got the makings for a fantastic product. It's just too bad that three quarters of the gameplay is insanely mediocre. Along the glitches and overall ugly aesthetic that DX brought to the table which makes for an all-round average video game.
~ 5.5/10
Whelp...here it is; the game that (aside from Mania) is often considered the pinnacle of 2D Sonic. Hell, many have named it the best game in the franchise. And for the most part, I can kinda see why that is. The gameplay feels like a perfect evolution of the formula the previous three games presented, featuring more of those games' best qualities while keeping the worst ones less of an occurrence.
I think the main thing that makes this game so memorable is just how rewarding it is to play. When you're breezing through a stage and achieve high speeds, it's because of YOU and your skills were able to accomplish this feat. Hardly any other Sonic game rewards the player quite as much as this one and you really get that sense of thrill and adrenaline that the series is known for. There aren't many things in a video game that are quite as satisfying as gaining a whole ton of speed in this game.
And then there's the level design which is damn near the peak of the series. It's grand in scale without feeling too large, it's incredibly nuanced with how many pathways are offered and best of all, they strike a perfect balance between speed and platforming. It's amazing how a game that's nearly three decades old at this point can feature such organic level design that many platformers that followed have failed to replicate.
But I won't lie, there are a few elements of this game that sour the experience a tad. Remember when I mentioned that Sonic 2 and CD got too carried away with intrusive trap/enemy placements? Well, the same thing can be said about this game but to a much less extent obviously. As amazing as a majority of the level design in this game is, there was a few stages that relied on muscle memory a bit too much, and annoyingly so. Like in those games I previously mentioned, it's not uncommon to hit something you won't see coming unless you have every single nook and cranny of the stage memorized. Definitely gets obnoxious sometimes, but thankfully, those moments are more rare than in the previous titles.
One more thing I have to praise about this game is its sense of adventure. Obviously, since this is an old Genesis game, there were some narrative limitations but despite that, Sonic 3 was able to muster a great story through its visual storytelling. It's subtle, the interactions with Knuckles are fun and it really feels like the player is a part of the whole journey. And unlike the other games where every stage seemed disconnected from one another, all of the zones in Sonic 3 feel like a part of the same world and the stage transitions were a nice touch.
It's impressive how Sonic Team was able to craft the perfect package for such an old school title. This game really does have it all...from the fast and satisfying gameplay, to the striking visuals and of course, the soundtrack that captures the perfect vibe. All of these elements are combined in a way that makes this game super memorable and just hard to beat. If it weren't for some of the more annoying zones (hello, Marble Garden and Sandopolis) I dare say this could've been the best game in the series.
~ 8/10
I think the main thing that makes this game so memorable is just how rewarding it is to play. When you're breezing through a stage and achieve high speeds, it's because of YOU and your skills were able to accomplish this feat. Hardly any other Sonic game rewards the player quite as much as this one and you really get that sense of thrill and adrenaline that the series is known for. There aren't many things in a video game that are quite as satisfying as gaining a whole ton of speed in this game.
And then there's the level design which is damn near the peak of the series. It's grand in scale without feeling too large, it's incredibly nuanced with how many pathways are offered and best of all, they strike a perfect balance between speed and platforming. It's amazing how a game that's nearly three decades old at this point can feature such organic level design that many platformers that followed have failed to replicate.
But I won't lie, there are a few elements of this game that sour the experience a tad. Remember when I mentioned that Sonic 2 and CD got too carried away with intrusive trap/enemy placements? Well, the same thing can be said about this game but to a much less extent obviously. As amazing as a majority of the level design in this game is, there was a few stages that relied on muscle memory a bit too much, and annoyingly so. Like in those games I previously mentioned, it's not uncommon to hit something you won't see coming unless you have every single nook and cranny of the stage memorized. Definitely gets obnoxious sometimes, but thankfully, those moments are more rare than in the previous titles.
One more thing I have to praise about this game is its sense of adventure. Obviously, since this is an old Genesis game, there were some narrative limitations but despite that, Sonic 3 was able to muster a great story through its visual storytelling. It's subtle, the interactions with Knuckles are fun and it really feels like the player is a part of the whole journey. And unlike the other games where every stage seemed disconnected from one another, all of the zones in Sonic 3 feel like a part of the same world and the stage transitions were a nice touch.
It's impressive how Sonic Team was able to craft the perfect package for such an old school title. This game really does have it all...from the fast and satisfying gameplay, to the striking visuals and of course, the soundtrack that captures the perfect vibe. All of these elements are combined in a way that makes this game super memorable and just hard to beat. If it weren't for some of the more annoying zones (hello, Marble Garden and Sandopolis) I dare say this could've been the best game in the series.
~ 8/10
1993
If we were to judge this game purely on aesthetics, this is without a doubt the best game in the entire series. The music, visuals and general atmosphere all combine in a strikingly profound way that the franchise has yet to replicate. The vibe of this game is also amplified by its soundtrack which also just so happens to be the best in the series. The fusion of hip hop, breakbeat and various other styles is not only brilliant from a sonic standpoint but it perfectly captures the futuristic tone of the game as well.
But as for the gameplay, this is where Sonic CD falls flat a bit. Not saying that the gameplay is bad but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tedious at times. For instance, the game can often reek of artificial gimmicks. Springs and hazards are placed wherever with basically no rhyme or reason and it can seriously become a chore to put up with at times. Sure, much of the game features those same qualities I mentioned in my Sonic 2 review but you'll run into some hindering level design more often than in that game.
I have some mixed feelings towards the time travel mechanic as well. On one hand, it's a super neat concept that adds a bit of variety to the games structure but on the other hand, it wasn't implemented in the best way as it's not really necessary for beating the game. Maybe this was intended to just be a neat extra feature and not a core part of the gameplay but considering the premise of the game IS time travel, I would've hoped the game gave you more of an incentive to use this mechanic.
Considering this game was made for the Sega CD, a much more powerful system than the Genesis, you would probably expect a bigger product but ironically enough, this game is marginally shorter than 1 & 2. Honestly, this game shouldn't take you any more than 45-50 minutes to complete, hell, even the first Sonic game could take up to an hour and a half to finish.
But despite all of its shortcomings, I don't think this game is bad or even mid at all. It does posses a lot of the same features I love about the classic era titles but it doubles down on some of those games' flaws like the liberal trap placement and generally inconsistent zone quality. Boss fights are honestly pretty pathetic as well. It's a pretty solid game overall and I enjoy going back to it every once in a while but even I have to admit that this game is mostly carried by its aesthetic.
~ 6/10
But as for the gameplay, this is where Sonic CD falls flat a bit. Not saying that the gameplay is bad but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tedious at times. For instance, the game can often reek of artificial gimmicks. Springs and hazards are placed wherever with basically no rhyme or reason and it can seriously become a chore to put up with at times. Sure, much of the game features those same qualities I mentioned in my Sonic 2 review but you'll run into some hindering level design more often than in that game.
I have some mixed feelings towards the time travel mechanic as well. On one hand, it's a super neat concept that adds a bit of variety to the games structure but on the other hand, it wasn't implemented in the best way as it's not really necessary for beating the game. Maybe this was intended to just be a neat extra feature and not a core part of the gameplay but considering the premise of the game IS time travel, I would've hoped the game gave you more of an incentive to use this mechanic.
Considering this game was made for the Sega CD, a much more powerful system than the Genesis, you would probably expect a bigger product but ironically enough, this game is marginally shorter than 1 & 2. Honestly, this game shouldn't take you any more than 45-50 minutes to complete, hell, even the first Sonic game could take up to an hour and a half to finish.
But despite all of its shortcomings, I don't think this game is bad or even mid at all. It does posses a lot of the same features I love about the classic era titles but it doubles down on some of those games' flaws like the liberal trap placement and generally inconsistent zone quality. Boss fights are honestly pretty pathetic as well. It's a pretty solid game overall and I enjoy going back to it every once in a while but even I have to admit that this game is mostly carried by its aesthetic.
~ 6/10
1992
A game vastly superior to the first one. Instead of having boring/basic level design, Sonic 2 opts for levels that actually allows the player to utilize their speed. For the most part anyways. Sonic also controls more fluidly and the spin dash was a neat mechanic that made traversal more satisfying. Unlike the first game, Sonic 2 is loads more fun to play.
That is until you reach Oil Ocean.
The first few zones in this game are legitimately some of the best the classic era had to offer. And this was mostly because of how the levels were structured. Utilizing skillful reflexes and speed management, the levels reward you with a route that allows you to travel at high speeds with less risk. While playing poorly will leave you stuck with a slower one. It takes a bit of trial and error and a few replays to get used to the zone layouts before you can make those achievements, sure, but the first batch of stages truly incentivized skillful play and to put it bluntly, they were just plain fun and rewarding. But that of course went out the window once Oil Ocean came about.
Oil Ocean onward is where the developers got a bit too carried away when it came to stage gimmicks, enemy placements, etcetera. At times, the level gimmicks will force you to stop moving or they'll be placed in a location that is just oh so inconvenient. Either way, they'll impede your progress in the most frustrating of ways.
This is a chore to deal with in Oil Ocean but Metropolis Zone is where things get truly excruciating. There are plenty of moments where an enemy or trap will be placed in an area where if you don't know its precise location, you won't really get a chance to react to it and you'll be forced to take damage. And then there's the Death Egg Zone where you're forced to fight two bosses without any rings! Good God.
Along with the spindash came another iconic aspect of this franchise that has since become a major reoccurrence; Miles "Tails" Prower. He doesn't really do much as he's mostly there for the ride but there is one thing I truly despised about him in this game and that's the special stages. The premise of the special stages is simple enough...collect a designated number of rings while avoiding bombs. Okay. So what part does Tails play in this and how does he make the experience excruciating?
Well, because instead of moving along with Sonic, his movements take place an entire second or so after yours. This means that if you don't move away from a bomb when it's like, 90 feet away, Tails will just end up running into it and he'll lose the rings he collected for you. And I didn't even mention how poorly placed some of the bombs are, like, why in the hell would you place bombs right at a turning point where you literally can't see them unless you have the layouts fully memorized (or if you get hit obviously, which is bound to happen 90% of the time).
So you combine a couple of fantastic stages with some lackluster ones toward the end along with some pretty bad special stages. I'd say that evens things out, creating an overall decent experience but one I don't necessarily like going back to.
~ 6/10
That is until you reach Oil Ocean.
The first few zones in this game are legitimately some of the best the classic era had to offer. And this was mostly because of how the levels were structured. Utilizing skillful reflexes and speed management, the levels reward you with a route that allows you to travel at high speeds with less risk. While playing poorly will leave you stuck with a slower one. It takes a bit of trial and error and a few replays to get used to the zone layouts before you can make those achievements, sure, but the first batch of stages truly incentivized skillful play and to put it bluntly, they were just plain fun and rewarding. But that of course went out the window once Oil Ocean came about.
Oil Ocean onward is where the developers got a bit too carried away when it came to stage gimmicks, enemy placements, etcetera. At times, the level gimmicks will force you to stop moving or they'll be placed in a location that is just oh so inconvenient. Either way, they'll impede your progress in the most frustrating of ways.
This is a chore to deal with in Oil Ocean but Metropolis Zone is where things get truly excruciating. There are plenty of moments where an enemy or trap will be placed in an area where if you don't know its precise location, you won't really get a chance to react to it and you'll be forced to take damage. And then there's the Death Egg Zone where you're forced to fight two bosses without any rings! Good God.
Along with the spindash came another iconic aspect of this franchise that has since become a major reoccurrence; Miles "Tails" Prower. He doesn't really do much as he's mostly there for the ride but there is one thing I truly despised about him in this game and that's the special stages. The premise of the special stages is simple enough...collect a designated number of rings while avoiding bombs. Okay. So what part does Tails play in this and how does he make the experience excruciating?
Well, because instead of moving along with Sonic, his movements take place an entire second or so after yours. This means that if you don't move away from a bomb when it's like, 90 feet away, Tails will just end up running into it and he'll lose the rings he collected for you. And I didn't even mention how poorly placed some of the bombs are, like, why in the hell would you place bombs right at a turning point where you literally can't see them unless you have the layouts fully memorized (or if you get hit obviously, which is bound to happen 90% of the time).
So you combine a couple of fantastic stages with some lackluster ones toward the end along with some pretty bad special stages. I'd say that evens things out, creating an overall decent experience but one I don't necessarily like going back to.
~ 6/10
1991
Sonic the Hedgehog is a character/franchise whose most notable trait is blistering speed. It was one of the first franchises to truly utilize momentum based physics and attention to speed into traditional platforming. So imagine my shock when the first game in the series basically contradicts everything I just mentioned.
Sure, Green Hill Zone is cool and all but immediately afterwards, the game takes a massive dip in quality and it pretty much stays that way throughout the remainder of the game. Aside from some highlights here and there of course but they're just too far in between. Much of the game has you slowed down to a crawl with very mediocre level design that hardly utilizes speed at all.
There's hardly a moment where you can travel at high speeds because the level design is really that restricted. There are plenty of moments where you'll just be sitting on a slowly moving platform that takes you to the next one or meandering through the stage to push a button to progress onward, like, nothing here incentivizes precise platforming at all.
A majority of the zones in this game are pretty damn boring but Labyrinth Zone takes the cake as the worst one. Hell, it might actually be the worst stage of the Genesis era. Everything I mentioned earlier in regards to painfully slow gameplay are amplified by tenfold in this zone. Tediously travelling as slow as molasses underwater isn't my idea of a fun level and the really shitty trap placements impeding your progress turns things from exhausting to excruciating.
I get it, it's easy to look back at a thirty year old game and notice a lot of the blatant imperfections that would eventually be improved but there were also a ton of other side scrollers at the time that were much more fun, better designed and were ironically faster than this slog. Aside from Green Hill Zone and maybe Starlight Zone, this game is just super mediocre and contradictory of the games overall premise.
~ 4/10
Sure, Green Hill Zone is cool and all but immediately afterwards, the game takes a massive dip in quality and it pretty much stays that way throughout the remainder of the game. Aside from some highlights here and there of course but they're just too far in between. Much of the game has you slowed down to a crawl with very mediocre level design that hardly utilizes speed at all.
There's hardly a moment where you can travel at high speeds because the level design is really that restricted. There are plenty of moments where you'll just be sitting on a slowly moving platform that takes you to the next one or meandering through the stage to push a button to progress onward, like, nothing here incentivizes precise platforming at all.
A majority of the zones in this game are pretty damn boring but Labyrinth Zone takes the cake as the worst one. Hell, it might actually be the worst stage of the Genesis era. Everything I mentioned earlier in regards to painfully slow gameplay are amplified by tenfold in this zone. Tediously travelling as slow as molasses underwater isn't my idea of a fun level and the really shitty trap placements impeding your progress turns things from exhausting to excruciating.
I get it, it's easy to look back at a thirty year old game and notice a lot of the blatant imperfections that would eventually be improved but there were also a ton of other side scrollers at the time that were much more fun, better designed and were ironically faster than this slog. Aside from Green Hill Zone and maybe Starlight Zone, this game is just super mediocre and contradictory of the games overall premise.
~ 4/10
2003
(Originally reviewed on April 1st, 2022)
Sonic Heroes is a very depressing game. And no, I don't mean 'depressing' in the sense that the game was so godawful that it made me feel that way. No, when I label this game as 'depressing', I'm simply referring to how this game manages to do everything right aside from the most important element. The soundtrack bangs, the story is cute and laid-back, the aesthetic is beautiful and each of the locations are vibrant and unique. Everything about this game is done pretty well, hell, I would even go so far as to say they're done brilliantly...so it's just depressing to me how badly Sonic Heroes' gameplay just straight up fails.
There will be a lot of negative qualities to discuss about this game so I think it'll just be better if I brought up the things I DID like about this game first. Why don't I begin with the games most notable aspect...the trio mechanic? Sonic Heroes' gameplay premise is pretty interesting enough; you control three different characters with the game allowing you to swap between them whenever unless they're stunned or just dead. And each of the three characters possess their own unique ability; speed, power and flying. And every stage is littered with different areas and shortcuts where the player is tasked with swapping between these characters in order to make progress. Now, on paper, this may seem like a mechanic that could very easily fail but surprisingly enough, the trio mechanic was implemented pretty well.
You can switch characters instantly at the press of a button, allowing gameplay to feel seamless and in some cases, even satisfying. Being able to constantly switch between characters in order to progress past the many "chatacter-coded" obstacles does feel really nice. Assuming the controls aren't hindering the experience but I'll save that complaint for later. But anyway, aside from having an audio cue EVERY TIME you switch characters, I really enjoyed what the devs were able to accomplish with this style of gameplay. It's simplistic, sure, but it's a fun, neat little concept that I honestly wish could get revisited some point in the future. But of course, cool mechanics in a platfomer mean nothing if you don't have good level design to accommodate them. And for the most part...Sonic Heroes nails it in this category as well.
The level design of Heroes dials back a bit from the more action oriented stages of its predecessor. It's more akin to SA1 in terms of gearing itself toward exploration and exploiting shortcuts as opposed to constant bursts of utter chaos. And much like SA1, Heroes' level design feels free. It's wide open, offers plenty of different routes to take and there's even a slight bit of optimization as well with the three different gameplay choices that are always available, which can allow the player to mix and match and get creative with how they approach the different obstacles.
My only two gripes with the level design are the abundance of poor combat segments (more on that later) and the menial, repetitive tasks that the different characters take. I did praise this concept earlier but I'd be lying if I said I never got bored with what the game required from these characters. Each character basically does three things (i.e. speed characters using light speed dash, power characters breaking through walls and flying characters...flying) and it admittedly does get kinda redundant especially when you consider the fact that these tasks hardly change aside from things like setting coming into play. Like sometimes power characters will have to smash the engine of a train instead of a wall for instance. Also, not helping is that some of these tasks completely break the flow of the game like in some cases where you have to stop and hit a target with a flying character or using a flying character to try and find a stupid switch that's stuck 90 feet in the air. So cool mechanics and neat level design but I just wish that there was more diversity in the obstacles.
But that's just a minor inconvenience when compared to the thing that makes this game so terrible; the physics.
The controls are so annoyingly sensitive, they have absolutely no weight to them, they give the illusion that every single stage takes place on Ice Cap, etcetera. I am not exaggerating when I say that these controls are slippery as hell, every single movement feels uber sensitive and it makes even the most casual traversal feel more frustrating than it needs to be. Never thought I'd be saying this about a damn SONIC game, of all things, but you're better off NOT going fast because doing so is actually incredibly dangerous. Want to try and go fast as you would in any other Sonic game? Good luck with that because once you gain even a decent amount of speed, you'll have to come to a complete stop if you want to turn or even jump because apparently landing a jump after gaining a slight amount of speed will slide the player forward. If you could keep your momentum going for like, five seconds you are either a god or a liar.
And of course, bad controls just HAVE to be coincided with lots of glitches, right? Most players will notice the laughable technical flaws right away but once you really start to get into it, the imperfections start to become oh so apparent. Clipping through rails, certain functions such as the homing attack literally not working at times and the bullshit controls will often be a cause of deaths and headaches throughout your playthrough. It really feels like I have to play the game as slowly and carefully as possible in order to avoid deaths that are otherwise non-existent in literally any other Sonic game. I'm not gonna sit here and say it's as bad as 06 although it does come dangerously close sometimes. The only thing 06 has over Heroes is shitty framerate. Heroes is, for the most part, pretty stable.
Earlier, I pointed out the subpar combat that gets sprinkled throughout each stage and honestly, the combat in this game just makes me feel sad. In a structural sense, it seems the devs were REALLY into the idea of a combat focused game but mechanically, that couldn't be any farther from the truth. Combat in this game is painfully tedious and trivialized by the hilariously broken mechanics. Much of the combat can be reduced to spamming a single attack and yes that includes the boss fights. And if the base combat wasn't trivial enough, the game implements a level up system that makes the combat go from feeling just easy to a literal simulation once a character is fully levelled up. Don't even get me started on those team blasts that's LITERALLY a free win button.
So yeah, unfortunately, I found Sonic Heroes to be a pretty weak game overall. Are there some neat concepts and level design? Yeah, sure, absolutely. And as I mentioned in the intro, aside from the gameplay, this game seems to accomplish just about anything you could ask from a video game. But sadly, Sonic Heroes is a very botched game that features terrible controls, an abundance of other technical issues, lackluster combat and the entirety of Team Chaotixs story being absolutely horrible and some the most tediously boring bullshit I've ever seen from this series. Again, the concept of having control of three unique playstyles at any given time is great...I just wish it was part of an actual functioning product.
~ 4/10
Sonic Heroes is a very depressing game. And no, I don't mean 'depressing' in the sense that the game was so godawful that it made me feel that way. No, when I label this game as 'depressing', I'm simply referring to how this game manages to do everything right aside from the most important element. The soundtrack bangs, the story is cute and laid-back, the aesthetic is beautiful and each of the locations are vibrant and unique. Everything about this game is done pretty well, hell, I would even go so far as to say they're done brilliantly...so it's just depressing to me how badly Sonic Heroes' gameplay just straight up fails.
There will be a lot of negative qualities to discuss about this game so I think it'll just be better if I brought up the things I DID like about this game first. Why don't I begin with the games most notable aspect...the trio mechanic? Sonic Heroes' gameplay premise is pretty interesting enough; you control three different characters with the game allowing you to swap between them whenever unless they're stunned or just dead. And each of the three characters possess their own unique ability; speed, power and flying. And every stage is littered with different areas and shortcuts where the player is tasked with swapping between these characters in order to make progress. Now, on paper, this may seem like a mechanic that could very easily fail but surprisingly enough, the trio mechanic was implemented pretty well.
You can switch characters instantly at the press of a button, allowing gameplay to feel seamless and in some cases, even satisfying. Being able to constantly switch between characters in order to progress past the many "chatacter-coded" obstacles does feel really nice. Assuming the controls aren't hindering the experience but I'll save that complaint for later. But anyway, aside from having an audio cue EVERY TIME you switch characters, I really enjoyed what the devs were able to accomplish with this style of gameplay. It's simplistic, sure, but it's a fun, neat little concept that I honestly wish could get revisited some point in the future. But of course, cool mechanics in a platfomer mean nothing if you don't have good level design to accommodate them. And for the most part...Sonic Heroes nails it in this category as well.
The level design of Heroes dials back a bit from the more action oriented stages of its predecessor. It's more akin to SA1 in terms of gearing itself toward exploration and exploiting shortcuts as opposed to constant bursts of utter chaos. And much like SA1, Heroes' level design feels free. It's wide open, offers plenty of different routes to take and there's even a slight bit of optimization as well with the three different gameplay choices that are always available, which can allow the player to mix and match and get creative with how they approach the different obstacles.
My only two gripes with the level design are the abundance of poor combat segments (more on that later) and the menial, repetitive tasks that the different characters take. I did praise this concept earlier but I'd be lying if I said I never got bored with what the game required from these characters. Each character basically does three things (i.e. speed characters using light speed dash, power characters breaking through walls and flying characters...flying) and it admittedly does get kinda redundant especially when you consider the fact that these tasks hardly change aside from things like setting coming into play. Like sometimes power characters will have to smash the engine of a train instead of a wall for instance. Also, not helping is that some of these tasks completely break the flow of the game like in some cases where you have to stop and hit a target with a flying character or using a flying character to try and find a stupid switch that's stuck 90 feet in the air. So cool mechanics and neat level design but I just wish that there was more diversity in the obstacles.
But that's just a minor inconvenience when compared to the thing that makes this game so terrible; the physics.
The controls are so annoyingly sensitive, they have absolutely no weight to them, they give the illusion that every single stage takes place on Ice Cap, etcetera. I am not exaggerating when I say that these controls are slippery as hell, every single movement feels uber sensitive and it makes even the most casual traversal feel more frustrating than it needs to be. Never thought I'd be saying this about a damn SONIC game, of all things, but you're better off NOT going fast because doing so is actually incredibly dangerous. Want to try and go fast as you would in any other Sonic game? Good luck with that because once you gain even a decent amount of speed, you'll have to come to a complete stop if you want to turn or even jump because apparently landing a jump after gaining a slight amount of speed will slide the player forward. If you could keep your momentum going for like, five seconds you are either a god or a liar.
And of course, bad controls just HAVE to be coincided with lots of glitches, right? Most players will notice the laughable technical flaws right away but once you really start to get into it, the imperfections start to become oh so apparent. Clipping through rails, certain functions such as the homing attack literally not working at times and the bullshit controls will often be a cause of deaths and headaches throughout your playthrough. It really feels like I have to play the game as slowly and carefully as possible in order to avoid deaths that are otherwise non-existent in literally any other Sonic game. I'm not gonna sit here and say it's as bad as 06 although it does come dangerously close sometimes. The only thing 06 has over Heroes is shitty framerate. Heroes is, for the most part, pretty stable.
Earlier, I pointed out the subpar combat that gets sprinkled throughout each stage and honestly, the combat in this game just makes me feel sad. In a structural sense, it seems the devs were REALLY into the idea of a combat focused game but mechanically, that couldn't be any farther from the truth. Combat in this game is painfully tedious and trivialized by the hilariously broken mechanics. Much of the combat can be reduced to spamming a single attack and yes that includes the boss fights. And if the base combat wasn't trivial enough, the game implements a level up system that makes the combat go from feeling just easy to a literal simulation once a character is fully levelled up. Don't even get me started on those team blasts that's LITERALLY a free win button.
So yeah, unfortunately, I found Sonic Heroes to be a pretty weak game overall. Are there some neat concepts and level design? Yeah, sure, absolutely. And as I mentioned in the intro, aside from the gameplay, this game seems to accomplish just about anything you could ask from a video game. But sadly, Sonic Heroes is a very botched game that features terrible controls, an abundance of other technical issues, lackluster combat and the entirety of Team Chaotixs story being absolutely horrible and some the most tediously boring bullshit I've ever seen from this series. Again, the concept of having control of three unique playstyles at any given time is great...I just wish it was part of an actual functioning product.
~ 4/10